Sling scheduling app alternatives: 6 options compared
Sling has the biggest free plan in the category, so most people leave it for a feature, not a price. Here is which alternative fills which gap, and what each one costs.
Free plans and prices checked against each vendor's own pricing page on 29 September 2026. Emplora is our product, and it is on this list.
Quick picks
- You need a time clock and have 10 or fewer staff
- Connecteam
- You need a time clock for more than 10 people
- Homebase
- Your staff do not have work email addresses
- Emplora
- You run a restaurant and want restaurant tools
- 7shifts
- You want swaps and time tracking in one mobile app
- When I Work
- You need forecasting and labor compliance
- Deputy
Why teams look for a Sling alternative
No time tracking on the free plan
Sling's free plan has no clock-in, no timesheets and no timesheet history. Hours for payroll have to come from somewhere else, which for many teams means a spreadsheet running alongside the schedule.
Everyday features sit behind Premium
Shift swaps, employee unavailability, calendar sync, schedule templates, SMS shift alarms and group messaging are all paid. Shift offers are free, but swaps are a separate feature, which surprises teams that assumed they were the same thing.
Per-user pricing once you pay
Premium is $2.00 per user a month billed monthly, or $1.70 annually. At 30 people that is $60 a month for features some rivals include free, and the 31st user means paying whether you wanted Premium features or not.
The alternatives at a glance
| Tool | Free plan | Time clock on free | First paid price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homebase | 10 employees, 1 location | Yes, with 90 days of timesheet history | $30 per location a month (Essentials), unlimited employees |
| Connecteam | 10 users, 1 schedule, 1 time clock | Yes, with GPS and geofencing | $35 a month per hub (Basic), flat for the first 30 users |
| Emplora | 15 employees, 1 location | Not offered on any plan | $39 a month, flat, for 2 locations and 40 employees each |
| 7shifts | 15 employees, 1 location | No | $44.99 per location a month (Essentials), up to 30 employees |
| When I Work | None, 14-day trial | Trial only | From $2.50 per user a month |
| Deputy | None, trial of up to 31 days | Trial only | $5.50 per user a month (Lite), with a $30 monthly minimum spend |
1. Homebase: best for adding a time clock
Scheduling, a time clock and light HR for small US hourly teams, with payroll sold alongside.
The most direct fix for Sling's biggest gap. Homebase includes a time clock on its free plan, running on tablets, computers and POS devices, with 90 days of timesheet history, for up to 10 employees at one location. Above 10, Essentials is $30 per location a month with unlimited employees, so a 25-person team pays $30 for scheduling and time tracking together.
- Free plan
- 10 employees, 1 location
- First paid price
- $30 per location a month (Essentials), unlimited employees
2. Connecteam: best for a free gps clock for small teams
An all-in-one deskless workforce app: scheduling, GPS time clock, chat, forms and training.
If your team is 10 people or fewer, Connecteam adds what Sling's free plan lacks at no cost: GPS clock-in, geofencing, auto-scheduling and shift replacements. The trade is the cap, down from Sling's 30 to 10 users, with archived staff counting towards it.
- Free plan
- 10 users, 1 schedule, 1 time clock
- First paid price
- $35 a month per hub (Basic), flat for the first 30 users
3. Emplora: best for staff who will not install an app
Our productScheduling for shift-based teams, where staff open their rota from a QR code or a PIN instead of an account.
This is our product, so read it knowing that. If you are leaving Sling because of the time clock, we are not the answer: Emplora has no clock on any plan either. Where we differ is onboarding. Staff open the schedule from a QR code or a PIN with no account and nothing to install, and pricing is flat at $39 a month for 2 locations once you pass the free 15 employees, rather than per user.
- Free plan
- 15 employees, 1 location
- First paid price
- $39 a month, flat, for 2 locations and 40 employees each
4. 7shifts: best for restaurants
Restaurant-specific scheduling with tip pooling, POS integrations and labor tools.
Sling is owned by Toast, so many restaurants already use it. 7shifts goes further on restaurant specifics: tips, POS integrations and labor targets, with shift trades free on the Comp plan for 15 employees at one location. It has no time clock on free either, so it solves a restaurant fit problem rather than the hours problem.
- Free plan
- 15 employees, 1 location
- First paid price
- $44.99 per location a month (Essentials), up to 30 employees
5. When I Work: best for swaps and time tracking in one app
A polished scheduling and time-tracking app aimed at hourly teams, sold per user.
If the gaps that hurt are swaps and clock-in together, When I Work handles both well in one mobile app. It has no free plan, only a 14-day trial, and pricing starts at $2.50 per user a month with seats sold in bundles of five or ten, which is slightly more per head than Sling Premium.
- Free plan
- None, 14-day trial
- First paid price
- From $2.50 per user a month
6. Deputy: best for full time and attendance with compliance
Enterprise-grade scheduling with demand forecasting, labor compliance and auto-scheduling.
The complete answer on hours: timesheets, a time clock, swaps and labor-law compliance are in Deputy's entry plan. It is also the most expensive route, from $5.50 per user a month billed monthly with a $30 monthly minimum, and there is no free plan, only a trial of up to 31 days.
- Free plan
- None, trial of up to 31 days
- First paid price
- $5.50 per user a month (Lite), with a $30 monthly minimum spend
When to stay with Sling
- You have between 15 and 30 staff and do not need a time clock. No other free plan in this comparison covers that many people.
- You use shift offers and time-off requests on the free plan. Several free tiers here, ours included, do not include time-off requests.
- You are a small team happy to pay. Premium at $2.00 a user is the cheapest per-head upgrade here: under 15 users it costs less than Homebase at $30, and under 20 less than Emplora at $39.
Moving your rota without losing a week
- 1
Decide where hours will live first
Because Sling's free plan has no timesheets, your hours are probably in a spreadsheet or a separate app. Decide whether the new tool becomes the source of truth for hours, or whether that spreadsheet stays, before anyone clocks in.
- 2
Collect availability fresh
Unavailability is a paid feature on Sling, so free-plan teams often track it in messages. Ask everyone to enter their availability in the new tool in the first week, which doubles as a check that they have all got in.
- 3
Rebuild one typical week
Recreate your busiest normal week, compare it against the same week in Sling, then let the new tool copy it forward. Porting months of history is rarely worth it.
- 4
Run both for one full week
Keep Sling as the source of truth for a week that includes a Friday and a weekend, then move the announcements over once nobody has missed a shift.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, for up to 30 users. The free plan includes shift scheduling, long-term scheduling, shift offers, time-off requests, shift alarms, announcements and private messaging. It does not include any time tracking. Checked against Sling's own pricing page in September 2026.
Only on paid plans. Time tracking, timesheets, clock-in rules and geofencing start on Premium at $2.00 per user a month billed monthly, or $1.70 annually. The free plan has no clock-in at all.
Connecteam and Homebase, both for teams of up to 10. Connecteam's free clock uses GPS and geofencing; Homebase's runs on tablets, computers and POS devices and keeps 90 days of timesheets. Above 10 people, Homebase Essentials at $30 per location a month covers unlimited employees.
Above 30 users you need a paid plan. Premium is $2.00 per user a month billed monthly, so 35 users cost $70 a month and 50 users cost $100, or $1.70 per user billed annually.
A shift offer posts a shift for someone else to pick up, and it is free. A shift swap is a two-way trade between employees, and it is a Premium feature. Sling's marketing copy blurs the two, so check which one your team actually needs.
Sling covers more people for free, 30 users against 15 employees, and is owned by Toast. 7shifts is more restaurant-specific, with tips, POS integrations and labor targets, and includes shift trades on its free plan. Neither has a time clock on free.
Or compare Emplora directly
Head-to-head on pricing, free plans and features, one tool at a time.
Scheduling your team can open from a QR code
Emplora is free for one location and up to 15 employees, then $39 a month flat. No employee accounts, nothing to install, and no credit card to start.